Assessments of the monetary value of brands has long interested and motivated the management of firms, and their investors. From a business perspective, the financial value is a preferred measure of brand equity or return-on-investment in brands. But a brand is a marketing-driven and consumer-based entity, and hence one cannot detach the financial value of… Read More
Understanding Consumer Approach to Transformational Vehicle Technologies
Two important technological developments with transformational power in vehicles are taking place side-by-side: electric vehicles (EV) and autonomous vehicles (AV). They have the power of transforming consumers’ experiences of driving their cars, or travelling as passengers, and maintaining them, possibly changing the way consumers perceive passenger vehicles in whole. The purposes and functionalities of the… Read More
Making the Environment a Factor in Business and Marketing
The 21st century faces humanity with multiple considerable challenges — economic, social, and environmental. The Corona pandemic added a salient physical challenge, by affecting our health, which is argued to be related also to environmental issues. Climate change is the most burning issue, per se, that receives top attention, and requires action. There is an… Read More
Smart Automation in Conflict
Smart automation is an integral part of the digital transformation of operations and services. However, automation goes much beyond the application of digital technologies and data when artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are recruited to fulfill any task. Smart automation entails using capabilities of learning from data (huge amounts of data), adaptation and autonomous execution… Read More
Building Experiences Around Tea
Drinking good quality tea is an experience inseparable from the product ‘tea’ and its attributes. The flavour and aroma of the tea are experienced by our senses (taste as well as smell). The attributes of a drink product like tea have to be felt, and consumers now are more interested in that experience than in… Read More
Barbie’s 60th Birthday: Moving With Time
The Barbie Doll was created by Ruth Handler in 1959 with the thought of showing young girls (first of all her own daughter) what they can become when they grow up. Ever since then many variants of Barbie looks have been developed, manufactured and marketed by the company originally founded by her husband Elliott with… Read More
Recording Open-Ended Answers in Video
A new capability has been added to consumer and customer surveys in the past few years: Capturing the answers of respondents to open-ended questions in video, recorded in particular by a respondent on his or her mobile phone in selfie-mode. For many users of smartphones it should come as a natural and instinctive way to… Read More